Jo Swinson

Jo Swinson (5 February 1980-) was the Lib Dem MP for East Dunbartonshire from 5 May 2005 to 30 March 2015 (succeeding John Nicolson) and from 9 June 2017 to 6 November 2019 (succeeding Nicolson and preceding Amy Callaghan). She also served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 22 June to 13 December 2019, succeeding Vince Cable and preceding Ed Davey and Sal Brinton.

Biography
Joanne Kate Swinson was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 5 February 1980, and she joined the Liberal Democrats at the age of 17. She worked for Viking FM in Hull before being elected to Parliament in 2005 as the Lib Dem MP for East Dunbartonshire in Scotland. Elected at the age of 25, she became the "Baby of the House", and she became known for her opposition to the Iraq War and against the Labour Party's proposals for national identification cards. She supported tackling climate change, supported reducing the voting age to 16, opposed the use of positive discrimination to fight gender imbalance, and called for a "wellbeing index" to be implemented. She served as Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs from 2012 to 2015, and she went on to serve as deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2017 to 2019. On 22 July 2019, she assumed the party leadership following Vince Cable's resignation, and, ahead of the 2019 general election, she stated that, if she would be able to form a majority government as Prime Minister, she would revoke Article 50 and end Brexit. However, the election saw the Conservative Party win its largest majority since 1987, while the Scottish National Party won a majority of Scotland's seats in Parliament. Swinson was among those who lost their seats to the SNP, ending her 144-day leadership of the party. She was the first party leader to be unseated since Arthur Henderson in 1931.